Good on PTI for launching a digital policy. The draft touches a variety of issues affecting the local IT & IT-enabled services (ITES) industry and makes the right noise on making Pakistan a knowledge economy through IT-centric exports. There is considerable ambiguity on matters of startup promotion, taxation, cyber security, user privacy, spectrum pricing, etc. However, there is one idea in the policy that can help address the issue of “scale” that is staring in the face of the IT and ITES industry after all these decades.
To consolidate the fragmentation in public-sector’s countless digital initiatives, the party has promised to establish a statutory body, titled Knowledge Economy Authority, which will have the authority to implement the government’s digital initiatives across the public and private sectors. The authority will be headed by a CIO, who will be recruited from the private sector. To align national and provincial digital policies, each province will have its CIO – all those CIOs will be sitting on a joint CIO Council.
The authority will spend, over five years, some $2 billion on a Digital Transformation Initiative, which will fund digital infrastructure, citizen services and e-government programs. The authority itself will handle all the digital contracting and projects related to public-private partnership. This focused approach, with a fat purse, is crucial to building scale in the local digital economy.
As local IT and ITES companies compete for government contracts in a structured, transparent and progressive manner, they will, over time, grow their business, hire and train more people, and better compete abroad. To let the authority work according to demands of modern economy and encourage SMEs to play their part, the policy draft also promises a revision in PPRA rules. That can help the effectiveness of a singular government authority contracting out digital public-sector projects.
Among other promises that stand out is the one to beef up HR in the industry through i) awarding 50,000 IT scholarships over five years in top IT local universities, ii) establishing three new IT universities, and iii) raising annual graduation output of top IT universities to 100,000 students by giving free land to build 120 new campuses. To improve science and mathematics capabilities of school students, science and maths teachers at government schools will be incentivized to enroll in a teacher certification program.
The policy also promises an expansion in digital infrastructure. Five technology SEZs will be set up to provide some 25 million square feet of subsidized office space, along with power, Internet and public transport facilities. The government will open its departments and databases to startups and fund their activities that are focused on solving issues in public education, health, agriculture and public services.
The overall policy goal, to create one million high-paying jobs for the youth, looks ambitious. A coherent strategy is missing. It will be challenging to supplant existing telecom and IT authorities with a totally new body staffed with non-bureaucrats. It will be difficult to unite the sparring provinces on one digital strategy. But the federal government still has a lot of policy room on matters of funding, taxation, infrastructure support and diplomatic facilitation. This policy’s mettle will be tested if and when the rubber hits the road.
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